Indian smartphone manufacturer, MoFirst, is planning to raise $10 million from stake sale to venture capitalists and private equity (PE) firms. The company is in talks with global PE firms that are focused on investing in technology start-ups in India. MoFirst is targeting revenues from handset sales and selling vernacular content through the phone’s localised vernacular app store.
MoFirst created Firstouch brand of smartphone for customers that prefer regional-language smartphones. The company has embedded a patented 48-key virtual keyboard and swipe technology that allows for translation from English to a local language and vice versa.
At present, MoFirst is selling Firstouch smartphones that support Gujarati through 270 stores. The company is now planning to launch smartphones that support Hindi and Marathi languages in July 2014 and Tamil, Telugu and Bengali languages in September 2014. The company will also launch 10 handset models priced between Rs 3,500 and Rs 12,500 over the next 12 months.
